Concentrating-belt



Patented June 6, I899. G. GATES.

CONCENTRATING BELT.

(Application filed July 3, 1897 gi 9 W N .B\

Nu. 626,4fil.

(No Model.)

NI'IhD STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE GATES, OF JACKSON, CALIFORNIA.

CONCENTRATlNG-BELT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 2 dated J 11116 1899-Applioation filed July 8, 1897. Serial No. 643,860. (No model.

To (all whmn 7325 may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE GATES, a citizen of the United States,residing at Jackson, county of Amador, State of California, haveinvented an Improvement in Concentratingielts; and I hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to a device for concentrating valuable heavymaterials; and it consists, essentially, in a novel construction andarrangementof an endless traveling belt, which will be more fullyexplained by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1is a longitudinal section of a belt having the tables lateral. Fig. 2 isa crossseetion of a belt having the tables running parallel with itstravel. Fig. shows a portion of a belt with longitudinal tables.

The object of my invention is to provide an endless traveling belt witha surface upon which a separation and concentration of heavy valuablesubstances from the lighter slimes and worthless material can beaccomplished more readily and the work of separation more closelyeffected than at present.

The belt is made of rubber. Such belts are usually made endless, passingover drums at opposite ends, one of which is slightly lower than theother to allow the material delivered upon the belt to flow downward andhaving a mechanism by which the belt is slightly advanced against theflow of the current of material.

In the construction of my belt I form the surface in a series of tablesA and offsets B, connecting the higher edge of each table with the loweredge of the next adjacent one, resembling in eross-section a series ofshallow offsets with long nearly horizontal intervening surfaces. Thesesurfaces may be arranged either transversely or longitudinally. In thetransverse arrangement the declination of the belt between the head orupper roller and the one at the lower end is slightly less than the riseof the surfaces A from the base of each offset B to the top of the nextone, thus giving the surfaces A a slight declination toward the head ofthe belt, or, in other words, each surface A rises slightly above ahorizontal plane from the base of the offset 13 to the top of the nextone, and if such a belt be agitated the tendency of the heavy materialaud sulfurets is first to settle upon the surface A of the belt, and theconstant agitation will cause these heavier portions to work back wardly or toward the bottom of the previous offset, against which the surfaceA abuts, while the lighter pulp and slimes will continue to flow overthe top of this heavier material, and dropping from one offset to thenext it will gradually pass to the lower and discharge end of the belt.The sulfurets, which are exceedingly fine and considerably heavier thanthis lighter pulp,will first besettled upon each tabular surface A, andas they gradually move on the surface to the foot of the precedingoffset B they will form an approximately level or horizontal surface,being deepest at the foot of the offset and becoming thinner until thefinal edge of termination of this deposit maybe near the point where theslimes flow over the succeeding offset and onto the next table below.Thus the tabular surfaces A, while not being in themselves exactlyhorizontal, will be covered with a coating of the heavier sulfurets,which will so settle upon the tables as to produce a practicallyhorizontal surface on each, over which the slimes will flow andeventually be discharged at the lower end of the belt. As the belttravels up the grade and overthe upper roller these sulfurets collectedat the foot of each offset Will be carried over the roller and thenceinto a tank, which is designed to wash them off in the usual manner ofwashing the sulfurets which are collected upon the surface of the beltby other methods. The advantage of this construction is the avoidance ofall absolute grooves or channels and the retention of the sulfurets uponeach of the tables, while the sulfurets themselves form aleveling-surface upon which the lighter materials will flow anddischarge readily. When the grooves are placed longitudinally on thebelt, these longitudinal tabular surfaces A extend from one side towardthe other of the belt and the offsets are parallel with the edges of thebelt, thus extending in endless lines around the belt. In this case Iset the drums over which the belt passes as before,

one of the drums being slightly higher than i the other, so thatanything delivered upon the belt would naturally tend to flow down andeventually over the lowerend of the belt; but in order to produce theseparation desired the belt is also inclined from one side to the otherby depressing the journals of the drums or rollers at one side, so thatthey are slightly lower than the journals upon the other. Thebelt-surface, if plain, would then have an inclination from one side tothe other,

and any material delivered upon this belt .similar when the surfaces Aare transverse.

wouldflow gradually down the belt from the upper to the lower roller andat the same time diagonally on account of the tilt or inclination ofvthe belt; but when the tabular surfaces A are used, as previouslydescribed, the tilt of the belt produces the same action that I havepreviously described when the tables and offsets extend transversely ofthe beltthat is, the edge of each table which is nearer to the highestedge of the belt is really a little lower than the discharge edge of thesame table toward the opposite side of the beltandthis produces thefollowing result:

The pulpis delivered by any suitable feeder along the higher edge of thebelt with a sufficiency of water, and a shaking motion of the belt isprod need by any suitable or Well-known means adapted for that operationas connected with concentrator-belts.

The sulfurets will settle gradually to that side of the tables at thefoot of each offset, the heaviest settling first upon the tables nearestto the feed edge of the belt and the finer and lighter settlingsuccessively upon the following tables until the very lightest of thematerial may be found near or beyond the middle of the belt. Thismaterial settles upon these tables, as previously described, so thatitforms a wedge shape and approximately level surface transversely of thebelt; but the inclination of the belt from the head to the discharge endis suificient to cause this material in addition toits transversemovement of the belt to have. a tendency to move down the belt as well,and this resultant motion causes the pulp to move diagonally from oneside of the belt to the other.

As the belt is continually traveling upward and over the upper roller,it will be seen that in this case as well as the other the sulfuretswhich have settled and adhered to the belt surface will be eventuallycarried over the upper roller, and passing into a water-tank throughwhich the lower part of the belt passes and is submerged the sulfuretswill be washed about two inches wide, the ofisets B about threethirty-seconds high, and when the belt is inclined from one side to theother, the belt being about four feet wide, to make the totalinclination approximately three-fourths of an inch. The proportions maybe relatively By this construction lam enabled to save the sulfurets andheavier valuable portions to an almost perfect degree.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. An endless traveliug-belt having a regular general inclination sothat pulp delivered at the upper end will flow toward the lower end,broad flat tabular surfaces upon the top of the belt with interveningoffsets, each of said surfaces declining toward the higher end of thebelt and to the foot of the next offset whereby extended surfaces areformed for the settling of sulfurets and to allow pulp to flow over thesurface of the sulfurets thus deposited.

2. An endless longitudinally-inclined belt composed of a series ofwidelongitudinallydisposed surfaces with shallow verticalconnecting-offsets, drums around which the belt is movable both drums soinclined from end to end, that the belt-surfaces have a slight downwardinclination transversely from the lower toward the upper edge of thebelt, and a means for supplying pulp and 'Wateralong the upper edge ofthe belt.

3. An endless longitudinally-inclined belt, composed of a series of widelongitudinallydisposed surfaces with short vertical connectlug-offsets,and having upturned flanges atits edges, drums around which the belt ismovable, both drums being inclined transversely of the belt, so as toproduce a general flow of pulp from the upper side and end, while thebelt-surfaces decline from the lower toward the upper side.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

GEORGE GATES.

Witnesses:

J ESSIE-C. BRODIE, S. H. NOURSE.

